Effective academic writing 2 the short essay pdf

In addition, though the cover is attractive, the pages are overly gray and monotonous. All the more reason to edit out obviously incorrect phrasing. Lastly, there is one sentence, on p. Such reiteration makes even more sense when we recognize that students effective academic writing 2 the short essay pdf test into an intermediate language class based on general fluency even though they may be missing critical basic concepts.

This chapter nicely scaffolds the review of paragraph basics including giving students the opportunity to practice both identifying and writing topic sentences. Because it begins with a capital letter, ends with a period, and appears in a textbook, the example cited might be seen as an acceptable sentence.

Heavily favoring first person essay models suggests that narrative writings are the most essential and common type of writing students will do in their academic careers.

Wh-questions could be structured to elicit critical analysis and engage students in the kind of thinking and writing that are the backbone of academic discourse. One notable and effective feature is Editing Your Writing part 4 in each unit.

The Paragraph, begins by reviewing a basic paragraph and proceeds to a discussion of how to write a three paragraph essay. Even so, navigating the text would be much easier if letters as well as numbers were used.

This is simply not true. Some of these assignments are quite broad. For example, the narrative unit introduces time adverbs and time clauses while the comparison and contrast unit details the use of appropriate connector words. In each instance, the authors present a challenging language issue, such as dependent and independent clauses, followed by a few exercises that move from identifying the structure, to producing it in a guided exercise, to editing a paragraph.

Though it is impossible to include everything in a text and please everybody, it would be nice to see some of these fundamentals woven throughout the text, as students often struggle with them for a long time.

For example, writing about a cultural tradition Unit 2 sounds easy since students generally come from different cultural backgrounds, but many students will struggle to narrow down the topic appropriately.

In later units, the authors cover familiar but important territory such as simple and compound sentences, how to identify and correct run-on sentences, adverbs of frequency, and connectors.

The text does a good job of introducing these language issues in suitable contexts. Effective Academic Writing 2 helpfully fills that important space between paragraphs and full length essays. For example, "Does the body paragraph contain enough descriptive detail?

This is where the instructor must step in to guide students in narrowing down the possibilities for an essay. The HTML version contains no page numbers. Designed to introduce intermediate students to three and four paragraph essays, each chapter of Effective Academic Writing 2 is divided into five parts.

For instance, one common error of non-native speakers is writing sentence fragments beginning with because.

Students would benefit from opportunities to practice many styles of writing that should help them develop as both critical thinkers and writers with a broader range. In particular, the authors devote only three pages to thesis statements, whereas students need extensive opportunities, ideally at intervals, to practice them.

Please use the PDF version of this article for citations. To me, by far the most glaring weakness of this textbook may be viewed as a strength by others.

Though paragraph and essay models are plentiful, to my regret they are far too heavily weighted toward first person narratives. Throughout the text, definitions of key terms are clear and concise.

These key terms serve as a helpful reference for students who may need clarification as they write. Numerous exercises as well as steps are also sequentially numbered, though at each level of numbering the font size is reduced.

This would reinforce the point while not eliminating the many benefits of authentic writing samples. In terms of organization, the book is quite confusing because numbers are overused.

Because overgeneralization is one of the topics the authors discuss, it is surprising they chose a sample essay that included this type of error. Though the text acknowledges the existence of a more academic style of writing through some thesis statements "There are several ways to reduce stress" and "Not getting enough sleep can have negative effects on a student" being two examplesthere is a dearth of third person essays.

Each unit also provides specific writing assignments. First the student encounters Unit 1, then Part 1. Perhaps in the Analyzing the student essay exercise, the authors could simply add a question asking students to identify inappropriate language in the paragraph as a way of verifying whether they understood the previously presented concept of overgeneralization.Effective Academic Writing 2: The Short Essay, is the second level of a new academic writing series.

The series teaches the writing modes and rhetorical devices students need to succeed in academic work. Grammar presentation and practice are correlated to the Grammar Sense series/5.